Dear Members,
A petition was signed by about 100 Members asking relevant questions of the organisation. This is the response from the Board answering the questions to help clear the air for this AGM.
TAIHS is a community owned and operated organisation which does its best to provide health care for our community. To continue being effective at saving lives and raising living standards for our community the organisation has to be above politics, family and community conflicts.
You might not know that in the past year your TAIHS has provided more than 25,000 GP visits, 2,782 locals had “715 health checks”, 4,353 hours of support at the Youth shelter given to 460 young people, 2,320 students competed the Deadly Choices program. TAIHS also employs more than 170 local staff, with 62% being First Nations people and average length of employment is almost 5 years. More detail on TAIHS achievements is in the annual report.
To answer the questions from the petition simply:
- The Board has tried five times to hold last year’s AGM but without enough Members present it couldn’t go ahead – there is nothing we can do to change this until people turned up
- The AGM is where the Board reports most things (like those asked in the petition) to Members and without an AGM we have not been able to report as we would like. We will change this in the future to find better ways to get more information to Members
- If we can hold an AGM tonight, the current Directors will all stand down as normal, and per the Rule Book open elections will take place for a refreshed Board for the year ahead
- Apart from the issue of not having an AGM so far, ORIC, the Department, our independent external auditors and the RACGP have no concerns with the way TAIHS is being run
- CEOs are hired to implement the strategy set by the Board. In the past few years one CEO was not offered a permanent position at the end of his probation period, and a second decided to work elsewhere. Legally the Board can’t comment further
- Our previous Board Chair stepped down for family business and a new Chair was appointed by the Board as per the Rule Book until this election can be held. A second Director quite properly stepped down after ORIC identified a ‘family relative conflict of interest’
- The Rule Book allows the Board to appoint specialist external Directors who are not Members. The Board asked former Hospital Board Chair John Bearne to join. He has been a volunteer on the TAIHS Finance, Audit and Risk Committee for more than a decade
- TAIHS spent about double the average amount on legal expenses last year because the organisation needed more advice than usual with a new building, two CEO payouts, questions about the Director conflict, and the usual questions raised operationally
- In the Rule Book, the Board is granted standard CPI increases on Director stipends annually, the last one in July 2022 (backdated to July 2021). The current Board has not accepted a pay rise in the 2022/23 or 2023/24 financial years.
More information about these answers is available if you want it, and was sent direct to all those who signed the petition.
Randal Ross
Chair TAIHS